Saturday, 7 November 2009

An Application Of Cooperative Learning By Using Internet Resources To Increase Student’s Participation And Interest In Learning English For Science And Technology (EST) Subject.By; Tiun Siew Mond and Tan Sin Yee

PurposeThis technique has been chosen to change students attitude toward EST subject.

The problems of the study1. Will cooperative learning increase students’ participation in EST teaching and learningprocess?2. Will students’ interest increase by conducting cooperative learning?

MethodologySampling or the targeted participants consisted of 28 Form 4H students and 32 Form 4N students in ST. JOHN Institution (SJI). Model of this action research used is Gerald Susman Model. This model including diagnosing, action planning, taking action, reflection, amended plan, take second action stage. Procedure in this research start with forming of groups and than different task topic given. After that, student by group doing their work with searching information through internet and will transfer information from linear text to non-linear text. Last procedure student doing presentation by using all information that they found. Base on data collected, it was found that the used of this technique produced positive results in terms of students participation in the lesson and their ability to present their findings outcome orally and share their information with the class. The data of the research was collected by using classroom observation, interview students finding and questionnaire. The data was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.

Data Collected

a) InterviewThe interview was conducted informally by using four questions relation to what the students thought of EST subject before the use of this technique in teaching English for science and technology lesson. The questions used in the interview focus to know about their ideas on group learning activities and also their preferences teaching way of the teacher.

Interviews were conducted to gain information regarding the response of students in the first and second cycle due to the collaborative learning which we implied in our teaching and learning process. There are five students were randomly selected to be interviewed individually in the classroom after finished the lesson in each cycle in our research.

There were four questions were asked during the interview session. The intention of these questions was to discover the students’ perceptions towards this technique whether the students like or dislike the cooperative learning activity. The interview session is crucial to our research due to the fact that specific opinions are needed in details to improve our study.

b) QuestionnairesThere are two types of questionnaire were carried out, namely open-ended questions and close-ended questions. The questionnaires is used to get know the students’ feelings and attitudes about before and after the technique we implied in our research. The open-ended questionnaires were given pre-implementation of the technique, while the close-ended questionnaires were given after the implementing the technique.

The first set of questionnaire contained five close-ended questions where the students need to give their responses about the using of internet resources in the cooperative learning. The second set of the questionnaire contained 10 close-ended questions were used to get the students’ responses about cooperative learning. The students need to answer the questions whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree to the technique we implied in this research. From the result, we can indicate the preferences of the students toward this technique.

c) Classrooms’ ObservationClassrooms’ observation is crucial to our research due to the objective of our action research is to increase the participation and interest in their learning process. Hence, observation on students’ response, participation (interaction in the group discussion, solving problem and transfer linear text into non-linear, presentation and answering quiz), and interaction was done throughout the teaching and learning process. From observation, students’ reaction and expression toward the learning process can be used to define whether they enjoyed the learning process. Hence, observation is crucial to obtain students’ responses toward this technique used in the learning process.

Data analysisIn this research, data were analysed from students’ perception toward the applied of cooperative learning technique by using internet resources in teaching and learning process. The data were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitative data includes interview and classrooms’ observation, while quantitative data was collected by using questionnaires. The content analysis was done in order to know the suitability of cooperative learning by using internet resources in teaching EST subject. In order to know about the students’ acceptance and perception toward this technique, the data which obtained from the questionnaires were summarized by using bar Figure. From the bar Figure, the percentage of the students’ preferences toward the techniques can be compared and see directly.

FindingThe finding in this research showed the increase in students participation and their interest. Moreover, the targeted classrooms atmosphere becomes more positive. They looked excited to search information through internet and able to finish their work on time.

Input From PresentationStudent more interested learning by group and cooperative learning actually give advantage for student to help each other in learning process. Using internet resources also will attract student’s participation and interest in learning English For Science And Technology (EST) subject.